Development of an Experimental Dynamo: Self-Generating Magnetic Fields from a Liquid Metal

9615789莱斯罗普这笔赠款提供83,279美元，作为开发实验发电机的部分费用，方法是测试一台原型仪器，该仪器在环空中以热力迫使液体钠对流，以试图产生磁场。为了在该装置中实现足够大的流体速度，设计用于处理大应力的钛转子将需要以25,000转/分的速度旋转。如此高的自转速度对于克服为模拟地球磁场而设计的实验仪器的定标问题是必要的。在过去的40年里，实验发电机的研制一直是地球物理学中一个基本的悬而未决的问题，也是国际研究人员的一个未实现的梦想。创建一个实验室大小的系统，能够产生足够大的磁雷诺数来模拟地球的地球发电机，这在技术上是令人望而生畏的。这台已经建成并用于初步测试的仪器将阐明流体发电机的物理原理，并有可能在实验室实验中首次产生磁场。***

9615789 Lathrop This grant provides $83,279 as partial support of the costs of developing an experimental dynamo via testing of a prototype apparatus which thermally forces convection of liquid Sodium in an annulus in an attempt to generate a magnetic field. In order to achieve large enough fluid velocities in this apparatus, the titanium rotor which has been designed to handle large stresses will need to be rotated at 25,000 rpm. Such high rotation rates are necessary to overcome the scaling problems of an experimental apparatus designed to model the Earth's geomagnetic field. The development of an experimental dynamo has been a fundamental unsolved problem in geophysics and an unfulfilled dream of international researchers for the last 40 years. The technical difficulties of creating a laboratory sized system capable of generating a large enough magnetic Reynolds number to simulate the Earth's geodynamo have been daunting. This instrument, which has already been built and used for preliminary tests will shed light on the physics of fluid dynamos and has the potential to produce a magnetic field for the first time in a laboratory experiment. ***